Container support bracket arrangement for railway cars

ABSTRACT

A railway flat car is provided with sets of container brackets adapted to support containers with conventional corner fittings in a raised position with respect to the deck of the car. Another set of container brackets with the first set is also adapted to accommodate and support a series of relatively short length containers having a greater height and which are particularly adapted to transport automobiles with the said containers being supported flush on the surface of the deck.

United States Patent Schuller et a1.

[ Apr. 23, 1974 CONTAINER SUPPORT BRACKET ARRANGEMENT FOR RAILWAY CARS James J. Schuller, Chicago; Ray L. Ferris, Thornton, both of Ill.

Pullman Incorporated, Chicago, 111.

Dec. 4, 1972 Inventors:

Assignee:

Filed:

Appl. No.:

U.S. Cl. 105/366 D, 248/119 R Int. Cl B65j 1/22 Field of Search 105/366 D; 248/119 R References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Mow'att-Larssen 105/366 D Gutridge 105/366 D 3,444,824 5/1969 Gutridge 105/366 D Primary Examiner-Drayton E. Hoffman Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Hilmond O. Vogel [5 7] ABSTRACT 6 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTED APR 2 3 I974 SHEET 2 0F 3 PIC-3.1.4

CONTAINER SUPPORT BRACKET ARRANGEMENT FOR RAILWAY CARS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to the field of railway cars and particularly and specifically to container cars having a container bracket arrangement for supporting a plurality of different types of containers.

2. Description of the Prior Art Prior art US. Pat. are Nos. 3,296,981; 3,415,205; 3,416,464; 3,547,048; 3,557,710; 3,557,711; 3,575,118; 3,559,590; 3,618,534; 3,621,794; and 3,630,155 (Class 105-366).

The aforementioned patents of the prior art all disclose various container bracketing arrangements adapted to be engaged by the four corners of a container which generally is provided with corner castings and which generally is supported from the railway car deck in an elevated position on the brackets. The present invention relates to brackets which are capable of supporting the standard corner bracket type of container in an elevated position but which also includes bracketing arrangement adapted to support a container of another type having a tall profile and which, therefore, is supported on the deck of a flat car. Thus, the present invention provides for the bracketing arrangement to be alternately used for containers of completely different types which must be supported on the deck and other containers which must be supported in a raised position from the deck.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a flat car showing a bracketing arrangement supporting a plurality of containers in a raised position with respect to the deck of the car;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view similar to FIG. 1 showing the same bracketing arrangement but disclosing the manner in which a plurality of different types of containers are supported on the deck of the car;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a view taken 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line 55 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged side elevational view with portions of the side sill broken away to disclose a container bracket;

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line 88 of FIG. 7; and

FIG. 9 is a cross sectional view taken substantially along the line 9--9 of FIG. 7.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, a railway flat car 10 is shown in schematic form. The flat car 10 includes an underframe 11, having wheeled trucks 12 of conventional design and not described in detail. The car 10 is provided at opposite ends with couplers l3 and includes a horizontal flat deck 14. The railway car deck 14 is reinforced by rectangular plate sections 15 disposed on certain deck areas wherein container substantially along the line brackets are supported. The deck includes a plurality of first bracket arrangements 18 of one type and second bracket arrangements 19 of another type. The two types of brackets are respectively shown in FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9 and FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. Referring now to FIGS. 6, 7, 8 and 9, the first bracket arrangement 18 comprises an upright wall or pedestal 20 having at its upper end inclined guide portions 21. Similarly, the second bracket arrangement 19 also includes an upright or second vertical wall 22. The bracket arrangement 18 also is provided with a horizontal bracket member 23 adapted to have its outer edge supported on side sills 16, having outwardly extending flanges 17. The side sills 16 are provided on opposite sides of the railway car 10 which includes a flat deck 14 supporting the aforementioned rectangular sections 15 which are disposed in the area of the bracket arrangements.

The bracket arrangement 18 also comprises vertical reinforcing gussets 24 connected to the bracket member 23 and to the upright wall 22. A flange 25, as best shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, also serves to reinforce the wall 20, the said flange being suitably connected to the rectangular section 15 at its lower end. A gusset 26 also connects the side sill 16 to the flange 25. As best shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 9, upper and lower hinge brackets 27 and 28, respectively, are suitably connected to the rear face of the wall 20. A hinged sleeve 29 by means of hinge pin 29 is secured to the hinge brackets 27, the sleeve 29 also being connected to a vertical wall member 30, with said wall member 30 being longitudinally positioned but laterally swingable relative to the side sill 16. A horizontal load supporting wall 31, as best shown in FIG. 9, is supported on the wall 30, the walls 30 and 31 being reinforced by diagonal bracing wall 32. An upper vertical corner wall 33 is suitably connected to a transverse vertical wall 34 which, with the horizontal load supporting wall 41, provide a corner seat which may support the corner portion of a container. The upper corner wall 33 also is provided with a slot 35 within which a restraining lug 36 may be pivotally secured and suitably spring biased (not shown) the same including a lip 37 which may suitably engage in locking relation the opening within a conventional corner bracket.

The wall 20 is also provided with a suitable elongated slot 38 which receives a support boss 39 mounted on the vertical wall 30 to provide additional vertical support means when the bracket arrangement is shown in the solid line position of FIG. 7. Suitable support gussets 40 and 41 also are secured to the rear of the wall 20 and to the hinge bracket 27 for effectively securing the vertical wall member for vertical hinging movement about the hinge pin 29'.

Referring now to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5, the second bracket arrangement 19 includes inclined guide portion 22' connected to the vertical wall 22 for suitably guiding a container into position on the deck. The vertical wall 22 and guide portion 22' are reinforced by vertical laterally extending walls 42, as best shown in FIG. 4. An inclined or diagonal bracing wall 43 connects the wall 42 and wall 22 to a horizontal plate 44. As best shown, the vertical walls 42 are cut out to accommodate a longitudinally extending angle 46 rigidly secured to the flange 17 and to a portion of the side sill 16. The angle is provided with a hole 47 through which a removable pin 48 may be inserted, the said removable pin 48 being suspended on a chain 49 suitably connected to the rear face of the wall 22. A hole 50 is also provided in the horizontal plate 44 which in the position shown in FIG. 3, permits the insertion of the pin 48 whereupon the bracket arrangement 19 is secured in a vertical operative position. The angle 46 has a wall portion cut-away, as indicated at 51, leaving a horizontal portion 52 which is suitably supported on vertical brackets 53 to provide a rigid construction. Uprights 54 are suitably connected to the rectangular section and support a hinge sleeve 55 on a hinge pin 56, as best shown in FIG. 5. The hinge sleeve is suitably secured to the lower end of the vertical wall 22 of the second bracket arrangement 19.

The disposition of the bracket arrangements 18 and 19 are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. All of the connections of the bracket arrangements and the bracket structures themselves may be secured by welding. In FIG. 1 the bracket arrangements 18 are disclosed as supporting three conventional standard containers having lower and upper conventional coiitainer brackets a. The containers which are approximately 40 feet in length are designated at A and the 20 foot containers are designated at B. As shown in FIG. 1, the container bracket arrangements 18, which are shown intermediate the container A, have their supporting walls and container seats swung to the out-of-the-way position also disclosed in broken lines in FIG. 7. Thus, these brackets, if desired, can easily be swung in an arc of 180 to the full line position of FIG. 7, if it is desired to support two twenty foot containers B instead of the: one container A, as shown in FIG. 1. In the carrying of the containers A and B, which as clearly shown are disposed in raised or elevated height relative to the deck of the container, the bracket arrangements 19 are swung downwardly to the position shown in FIG. 5, which is the out-of-the-way position beneath the raised containers A and B.

FIG. 2 discloses the arrangements of the container brackets 18 and 19 when the flat car is utilized for transporting high containers such as may be utilized for transporting automobiles. Containers of this type may consist of a plurality of platforms within an enclosed container, each platform supporting an automobile. Because of the greater heights required, it is desirable to seat containers of this type flat or flush on the deck surface. As shown in FIG. 2, when such containers are employed, both bracket arrangements 18 and 19 may be employed. The bracket arrangements 18 are employed when the car, as shown in the full line of FIG. 2, supports four of the automobile containers. In this case the bracket arrangements 18 have their vertical supporting walls 30 swung to the out-of-the-way position over the side sill 16, as shown in FIG. 7, and the walls 20 of the arrangements 18 support the containers against lateral displacement from the deck. Each of the auto containers C, as schematically shown by the letter D in FIG. 7, is provided with outwardly projecting lugs at opposite lower ends which are adapted to overlie the flanges 25 of each of the longitudinally disposed bracket arrangements 18 and, thus, secure the automobile container against longitudinal displacement relative to the deck on which these containers are seated.

When it is desired to carry a total of six of the auto containers C on the deck, the container bracket arrangements 19 are utilized. This is schematically shown in the broken lines designating the containers C in FIG.

2. The bracket arrangements 19 are placed in an upright locked position with the locking pins 48 in position, as shown in FIG. 3, and the lugs or projections D of the automobile containers C now engage and overlap the outer edges of a bracket 53, as also shown schematically in FIG. 4, wherein the lug D is in overlapping engagement with said bracket. Thus, each of the containers C is supported against lateral and longitudinal displacement by the brackets 19 when the flat car is utilized to contain six of the containers.

Thus, it is apparent that the container arrangement herein disclosed and hereinafter claimed is adapted to support a variety of different lengths and types of containers. The auto containers are supported flush on the deck, which is required because of their heights, whereas the standard container may be supported in a raised position with respect to the flat deck of the car which facilitates loading and removal of the containers.

What is claimed is:

l. A railway car having a horizontal deck including a container support arrangement for supporting a container in vertically spaced relation on said deck, or on said deck in substantially flush relation, comprising:

a plurality of container brackets supported on said deck in horizontally spaced rectangular configuration for securing one or more containers against relative horizontal displacement from said deck;

each said bracket including a first vertical wall adapted to be positioned adjacent the corner of a container with said wall extending substantially parallel to the side wall of the container,

a plurality of support members each having interconnected vertical walls and a horizontal wall to provide a corner seat vertically spaced from said deck,

means movably supporting said corner support members on said car for relative movement with respect to each said first vertical wall, said movable means including arms supporting said support member,

hinge means connecting each said arm to said first vertical wall for hinging movement about a vertical axis whereby said arms are swingable from a longitudinally disposed use position to an out-of-theway position also longitudinally disposed relative to said first vertical wall,

said corner support members and seats providing support for a container vertically spaced with respect to said deck, and

said support member being movable to an out-of-theway non-use position whereby said first vertical walls provide for cradling and restraining means at the four corners of container whereby a container is seated substantially flush on said deck.

2. The invention in accordance with claim 1, said arms including interengaging means spaced horizontally from said hinge means and engageable with said first vertical wall whereby said vertical wall provides structural support for said container support member.

3. The invention in accordance with claim 2, said interengaging member including a shear plug on said arm and engageable with an aperture in said first vertical wall.

4. The invention in accordance with claim 1, includmg:

corner support members of said first brackets are in the non-use position.

5. The invention in accordance with claim 1, said corner support seats being positioned in raised relation relative to said deck.

6. The invention in accordance with claim 4, said second brackets being hingedly connected to said car and in said non-use position being folded on the deck of said car. 

1. A railway car having a horizontal deck including a container support arrangement for supporting a container in vertically spaced relation on said deck, or on said deck in substantially flush relation, comprising: a plurality of container brackets supported on said deck in horizontally spaced rectangular configuration for securing one or more containers against relative horizontal displacement from said deck; each said bracket including a first vertical wall adapted to be positioned adjacent the corner of a container with said wall extending substantially parallel to the side wall of the container, a plurality of support members each having interconnected vertical walls and a horizontal wall to provide a corner seat vertically spaced from said deck, means movably supporting said corner support members on said car for relative movement with respect to each said first vertical wall, said movable means including arms supporting said support member, hinge means connecting each said arm to said first vertical wall for hinging movement about a vertical axis whereby said arms are swingable from a longitudinally disposed use position to an out-of-the-way position also longitudinally disposed relative to said first vertical wall, said corner support members and seats providing support for a container vertically spaced with respect to said deck, and said support member being movable to an out-of-the-way non-use position whereby said first vertical walls provide for cradling and restraining means at the four corners of container whereby a container is seated substantially flush on said deck.
 2. The invention in accordance with claim 1, said arms including interengaging means spaced horizontally from said hinge means and engageable with said first vertical wall whereby said vertical wall provides structural support for said container support member.
 3. The invention in accordance with claim 2, said interengaging member including a shear plug on said arm and engageable with an aperture in said first vertical wall.
 4. The invention in accordance with claim 1, including: second brackets having second vertical walls, and said second brackets being disposed on said deck in rectangular configuration, said second walls during the non-use position of certain of said first brackets being in restraining engagement with containers positioned substantially flush on said deck, and certain of said second vertical walls cooperating with certain of said first vertical walls to support containers substantially flush on said deck when said corner support members of said first brackets are in the non-use position.
 5. The invention in accordance with claim 1, said corner support seats being positioned in raised relation relative to said deck.
 6. The invention in accordance with claim 4, said second brackets being hingedly connected to said car and in said non-use position being folded on the deck of said car. 